Significant amounts of fat have to be trimmed off over-conditioned lamb carcases in meat factories, sheep farmers were told at a farm walk in Ballygally, Co Antrim, last week.
Speaking at an event hosted by Easy Care sheep breeder Campbell Tweed, Michaela Tener from Dunbia said that a lamb carcase with a 4L fat grade typically has 3kg of waste fat.
That compares with 1.5kg of waste for a 3L-grading carcase and 700g of waste from a carcase with a fat class of two.
“You are paying to put it on your lamb, and we are paying to throw it out,” she said.
Last year our average carcase was 21.5kg, so there were a lot of lambs overweight
Tener told farmers that the ideal fat class is two, as some fat is still needed for cooking and to allow carcases to be chilled without being damaged by muscle contraction (cold shortening).
She urged farmers to avoid producing overweight carcases so that they get paid for the entire carcase and to allow processors to sell more meat cuts into higher-value markets.
“Last year our average carcase was 21.5kg, so there were a lot of lambs overweight,” Tener maintained.
Underestimate
Also speaking at the event, Dr John Donaldson from Harper Adams University suggested that farmers often underestimate the weight of sheep when administering wormers, which leads to under-dosing and anthelmintic resistance.
Dr John Donaldson from Harper Adams University speaking at an open evening on Campbell Tweed’s farm near Ballygally last week.
He pointed to an exercise that is carried out at Harper Adams, where the bodyweights of different sheep are estimated before they are weighed: “In 20 years, I have never had a group of students who haven’t underestimated weights.”
Research
At the event, Donaldson also gave an overview of ongoing research which aims to lower anthelmintic use through manipulation of the protein content in ewe diets. He explained that adult sheep are generally immune to internal parasites, but immunity drops in ewes around lambing time which results in most farmers giving ewes an anthelmintic treatment.
We are starting to see things happening
Donaldson said that dietary protein is needed for the immune system and his research has found that ewes that were fed fish meal as a protein source (something not allowed in conventional agriculture as part of BSE controls) had no increase in faecal worm egg counts at lambing, meaning they had no immunity breakdown.
Donaldson said that research is now being conducted on other protein sources: “We are starting to see things happening.”
However, the Harper Adams researcher acknowledged that any new ewe ration will have to be cost-effective if it is to lead to a reduction in anthelmintic use: “Part of the problem with wormers could be that they have historically been cheap.”
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Significant amounts of fat have to be trimmed off over-conditioned lamb carcases in meat factories, sheep farmers were told at a farm walk in Ballygally, Co Antrim, last week.
Speaking at an event hosted by Easy Care sheep breeder Campbell Tweed, Michaela Tener from Dunbia said that a lamb carcase with a 4L fat grade typically has 3kg of waste fat.
That compares with 1.5kg of waste for a 3L-grading carcase and 700g of waste from a carcase with a fat class of two.
“You are paying to put it on your lamb, and we are paying to throw it out,” she said.
Last year our average carcase was 21.5kg, so there were a lot of lambs overweight
Tener told farmers that the ideal fat class is two, as some fat is still needed for cooking and to allow carcases to be chilled without being damaged by muscle contraction (cold shortening).
She urged farmers to avoid producing overweight carcases so that they get paid for the entire carcase and to allow processors to sell more meat cuts into higher-value markets.
“Last year our average carcase was 21.5kg, so there were a lot of lambs overweight,” Tener maintained.
Underestimate
Also speaking at the event, Dr John Donaldson from Harper Adams University suggested that farmers often underestimate the weight of sheep when administering wormers, which leads to under-dosing and anthelmintic resistance.
Dr John Donaldson from Harper Adams University speaking at an open evening on Campbell Tweed’s farm near Ballygally last week.
He pointed to an exercise that is carried out at Harper Adams, where the bodyweights of different sheep are estimated before they are weighed: “In 20 years, I have never had a group of students who haven’t underestimated weights.”
Research
At the event, Donaldson also gave an overview of ongoing research which aims to lower anthelmintic use through manipulation of the protein content in ewe diets. He explained that adult sheep are generally immune to internal parasites, but immunity drops in ewes around lambing time which results in most farmers giving ewes an anthelmintic treatment.
We are starting to see things happening
Donaldson said that dietary protein is needed for the immune system and his research has found that ewes that were fed fish meal as a protein source (something not allowed in conventional agriculture as part of BSE controls) had no increase in faecal worm egg counts at lambing, meaning they had no immunity breakdown.
Donaldson said that research is now being conducted on other protein sources: “We are starting to see things happening.”
However, the Harper Adams researcher acknowledged that any new ewe ration will have to be cost-effective if it is to lead to a reduction in anthelmintic use: “Part of the problem with wormers could be that they have historically been cheap.”
Read more
Nitrogen spread once a year on NI dairy farm
Store lamb sales off to a strong start
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